


Breaking Even

by MannaTea



Series: Rewritten, Reborn, Revived [20]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken | Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Genre: Abusive Parents, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MannaTea/pseuds/MannaTea
Summary: The girl was smart, but that wasn’t a good thing.
Series: Rewritten, Reborn, Revived [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/653711
Kudos: 6





	Breaking Even

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on December 20, 2009 as a giftfic/prompt fill for Nico. It was rewritten around July 26th, 2020; I just forgot to post it until now.

The girl was smart, but that wasn’t a good thing. Sonia would rather have a stupid daughter, one that blindly obeyed her and refrained from asking questions. The what-ifs and whys weren’t important and never would be, not to someone like her.

But no matter how many times she’d pushed Nino away, the child kept coming back for more. Her eyes begged for something Sonia knew she could never give.

Not to her, not to anyone.

Perhaps in another world, in another place and time, she would have the capacity to feel emotion like that. Love and hope, trust and faith. Perhaps her inability to understand them, to know them, was why she felt so little in general. Was there more to existence than this? Could there be?

Surely not. Not for her.

The little girl smiled to herself as she practiced spells and incantations, writing them out over and over again. No good would come of that child learning magic. No good _at all_. She was too tender-hearted, too sweet, too _innocent_. It made Sonia’s stomach twist.

Oh, how she wanted to crush that delicate smile beneath her heel!

She had never had a moment like that for herself. Even if she curled her lips into a smile, it would never be the same. She had never experienced childhood or the innocence that came with it.

Without thinking, she fired a spell in Nino’s direction. That child had _no right_ to become anything she herself could not be, and the thought of singed hair and flaky, peeling skin brought her lips up into a smile: the only kind she knew.

The spell missed, and Nino’s wide eyes stared at her in disbelief from where she’d thrown herself to the floor.

“Out of the way, Girl!” The anger in Sonia’s voice could easily be mistaken for concern. “You could have been killed!”

A pity that the spell had not hit its intended target. It would have saved them both a lot of hassle. Surely she could have claimed it was a terrible accident. Tragic, even. How inconceivable that Nino had been so careless as to wander about where she should not have been!

“I’m s-sorry, Mother,” the little thing managed to say, her body trembling as she picked herself up from the ground.

It brought Sonia some measure of satisfaction to see the child frightened. It would keep her in her place. She would never become as important, as _perfect_ , as the woman she looked up to and called her mother.

She wouldn’t _dare_.


End file.
